Glove Dispensing Apparatus and Glove Cartridge for use Therewith and Glove Dispensing Method

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for dispensing a disposable glove and applying it to the hand of a user in which a stream of air drawn into an enclosed glove applying chamber through a constricted opening aligned with the heel of the glove inflates the topmost glove in a stack of gloves in the chamber so that a user can readily insert his hand into the glove. After the user has donned the glove on the hand, a wall of the chamber is opened to permit the user to readily withdraw his hand from the glove applying chamber while the air flow which originally inflated the topmost glove is disrupted. Upon closures of the chamber wall, the re- established air flow automatically inflates the next lower glove in the glove stack to prepare the next glove for receipt of another hand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In food service and food handling industries, public healthconsiderations have lead to rules mandating that workers wear gloveswhen handling food. Corresponding requirements also exist in otherindustries. In sandwich shops and similar establishments where workerssuccessively serve a series of customers, it may be required in order toprevent cross-contamination that the workers don a new set of gloves foreach customer. As a result, there is a need for inexpensive gloves whichare readily disposable. Such gloves are commonly made from two layers ofpolymeric film cut to the general shape of a hand and heat sealed aroundthe periphery to from an enclosure for the hand.

In many cases, however, such gloves can be difficult to apply. The thinpolymeric films from which the gloves are made can be difficult to grip.Static charges or natural adhesion may cause the layers to adhere toeach other, thereby making it difficult for a user to open the glove forinsertion of the hand. Service delays which occur as workers struggle toput on a new set of disposable gloves reduce the overall efficiency offood service establishments. It would be highly desirable for suchbusinesses if an apparatus were available to facilitate rapid andreliable donning of a new disposable glove by the personnel of theestablishment.

Efforts have been made in the past to devise glove applying devices,particularly for surgical gloves. Such devices, however, have tended tobe complicated and/or to involve complex structural arrangements, suchas tight peripheral seals, unsuited to the dispensing of lightweight andinexpensive food service gloves. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,463discloses a system in which an individual glove is inserted into avacuum-generating machine, where each individual glove must be firsthandled and a seal between the wrist opening of the glove and thevacuum-generating machine must be created. The need to individuallyhandle the gloves and to positively seal the wrist region of the gloveto permit a strong vacuum to be generated (such as by clamping the wristregion of the glove on the vacuum-generating machine, rolling the wristregion over a rim of the vacuum-generating machine, or providing a rigidring about the glove wrist area to support the glove when located in thevacuum-generating machine) is a problem common to a number of suchdesigns, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,276,4,155,494, 4,889,266, 4,915,272, 5,058,785, 5,078,308, 5,868,290,6,053,380, 6435,388, 6,832,708 and 6,932,253.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improvedapparatus for dispensing and applying a glove to the hand of a user.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus fordispensing and applying a glove to the hand of a user which isstructurally uncomplicated, yet reliable and can be produced atreasonable cost.

A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus fordispensing and applying a glove to the hand of a user which avoids theneed for the user to fumble with the glove and facilitates rapid andconvenient application of a glove.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an apparatus fordispensing and applying a glove to the hand of a user which can be usedrepeatedly in rapid succession.

It is also an object of the invention to provide as an article ofmanufacture a glove cartridge or stack of gloves adapted to be dispensedand applied to the hand of a user by the aforedescribed glove dispensingand applying apparatus.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which doesnot rely on a completely sealed container in order to enable the openingof a glove to permit insertion of a hand.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method for donning aglove in which individual gloves are inflated by the use of gas flowaround the glove so as to present the open heel of the glove (i.e., theglove wrist opening) to a user for donning, without the need for sealedcontainers or pre-mounting of the glove on a glove-holding apparatus.

These and other objects of the invention have been achieved by providinga glove opening and dispensing machine in which air flow is developedover a top glove in a stack of one or more gloves in a manner whichcauses the top glove to be expanded open by the air flow without theassistance of any sort of wrist-opening supporting device or theestablishment of a sealed vacuum compartment. As a result, the operatormay quickly and simply insert a hand into the glove and immediatelyremove the gloved hand without needing to contact any surface of theglove other than its interior.

The gloves may be arranged in a stack having relatively small tabs onthe lower edge of the glove wrist opening which provide for contact andretention on at least one of the next lower glove in the stack and thestack itself. The retention may result from a variety of approaches,such as the presence of an adhesive on the lower face of a connectingtab or by use of glove stacking tabs on the heel of the glove, as longas the approach: (i) permits the top glove on the stack to be inflatedby gas flow while the tab or other stacking aid retains the top glove onthe stack and helps to keep the next glove down in the stack fromopening in response to the air flow; (ii) the top-glove's heel tab isreadily released from the stack as the operator removes their glovedhand from the machine; and (iii) removal of the top glove and its tab orother stacking aid permits the next glove in the stack to immediatelyinflate in the air flow so as to be quickly ready for the next operatorhand insertion.

Further objects of the invention have been achieve by providing a methodfor donning gloves including the steps of operating a gas flowgenerating source to create a gas flow across at least a top glove in astack of gloves in an unsealed glove inflation chamber, inserting a handinto the top glove which has inflated upon establishing the gas flowpast the top glove in the glove inflation chamber, moving the top glovewith the hand away from the stack of gloves to separate the top glovefrom the stack of gloves. The method for donning gloves further mayinclude the step of, after inserting the hand into the top glove,disrupting the gas flow in the glove inflation chamber, and the step ofdisrupting the gas flow to facilitate removal of the gloved hand by atleast one of operating a bypass valve to disrupt flow into an opening ofthe glove inflation chamber, operating an outlet valve to disrupt flowout of an outlet opening of the glove inflation chamber, and turning offthe gas flow generating source by at least one of manual and automaticactuation of a power switch of the gas flow generating source.

Further advantageous refinements and preferred aspects of the inventionwill be apparent from a consideration of the following description andclaims and the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in further detail hereinafter withreference to illustrative preferred embodiments shown in theaccompanying drawing figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative embodiment of a glovedispensing and applying apparatus according to the invention in whichinterior components are depicted in broken lines;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the apparatus of FIGS. 1-3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail end view of the stacking arrangement of aseries of gloves in a glove cartridge adapted for use in the apparatusof the invention;

FIG. 6 is a side view of a glove cartridge in the apparatus of theinvention with the topmost glove inflated and ready to receive the handof a user; and

FIG. 6A is an enlarged detail view of a portion of the glove cartridgeof FIG. 6 in the area identified by rectangle A showing how the topmostglove prevents inflation of the underlying gloves.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a view of a glove dispensing apparatus 100 inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In thisarrangement, a glove inflating chamber 105 is formed within a box-shapedstructure having side walls 110, 112, rear wall 114 and a hinged lid116. The rear wall 114 has a gas outlet opening 115 (here, a round port)through which a gas (in this embodiment, air) is drawn during operationof the glove dispensing apparatus 100, as discussed further below. Thehinged lid 116 pivots in the vicinity of the rear wall 114 about axis117, acting as a valve which alters the gas flow through the gloveinflating chamber 105 as the lid 116 is opened and closed. The hingedlid 116 also includes a front panel 118 which helps control air flowduring operation of the glove dispensing apparatus 100, as discussedfurther below. The glove inflating chamber 105 also includes internalair flow control walls 120, 122 which are shaped to generally closelyconform to an outer profile of a glove.

In this embodiment, the glove inflating chamber 105 is located about acutout 124 in the floor plate 126 upon which the box-shaped gloveinflating chamber 105 is located. The floor plate is located above abase plate 128, thereby defining a recessed platform area 130 in which astack of gloves may be placed in preparation for glove donning (stacknot illustrated for clarity, see example stack details in FIGS. 5, 6,6A).

FIGS. 2 and 3 show front elevation and side elevation views,respectively, of the FIG. 1 embodiment. The FIG. 2 view in particularshows the relatively constrained size of the front opening 132, afeature which enhances air flow about the open end of the top glove inthe stack of gloves. The configuration of the front opening 132 alsoillustrates a feature of the present invention, the lack of reliance ona completely sealed operating environment to ensure adequate inflationof the glove for hand insertion, unlike the case in the patentsidentified above. This greatly reduces the design complexity andoperational issues, as there is no need for installation or otherhandling of the gloves in order to prepare them for mounting in asealing fixture, as in prior art glove inflation machines.

FIG. 4 is a top view of the FIG. 1 apparatus, showing the generallyglove-shaped region 134 between internal air flow control walls 120, 122within glove inflation chamber 105. The shape of the generallyglove-shaped region 134, corresponding generally to a plan view profileof the stack of gloves, is provided to maintain consistent air flowvelocity around the top glove in the stack of gloves to help maintainthe inflated glove shape during glove donning.

Details of an arrangement of a stack of gloves well suited to use withthe FIG. 1 apparatus embodiment of the present invention are shown inFIGS. 5, 6 and 6A. FIG. 5 shows an elevation view of a stack 200 ofgloves 210. In this embodiment of the stack of gloves, the gloves 210are stacked on top of one another. As seen in the FIG. 5 elevation view,the gloves 2-7 in the stack of gloves 200 have a full width which isaccommodated in the generally glove-shaped region 134 of the apparatus100, while the width of the front opening 132 of the glove inflationchamber 105 generally corresponds to the width of the heel of the gloves215.

In this embodiment of the stack 200, there is no connection between thegloves 210 except for a relatively small glove heel contact area 220located within the width of the heel of the gloves 215. This heelcontact area 220 is located only on a lower portion of the glove heelopening, and is provided to act as an anchor for the top glove. Thisanchor holds the top glove in the stack in place while the glove isbeing inflated, yet does not offer-significant resistance to separationof the top glove from the stack 200 after the user has inserted a handinto the top glove and pulled the glove out of the apparatus 100. Thewidth of the heel contact area may vary, so long as sufficient contact,is provided to secure the glove to the glove stack until a hand isinserted and the glove is removed, while still allowing the uppersurface of the topmost glove to rise enough to allow a hand sufficientroom to enter the glove. In a preferred embodiment, the secured portionin the heel contact area 220 may extend along from 10 to 50% of theglove width, and further along from 15 to 35% of the glove width.

A similar heel contact area is provided between each of the gloves inthe glove stack 200. One of ordinary skill will recognize that there aremany ways to provide such a connection between the heel contact area 220and either the next lower glove or the rest of the glove stack whilestill providing for easy removal of the top glove from the stack. Forexample, the use of a low-adhesion adhesive over a small area wouldserve these functions, as would use of an easily torn-off tab at theheel of the glove, the use of a thermal bonding process such as thermalfusion, or the use of a series of interlocking molded surface features.This glove stacking approach provides a low-cost approach to glovepreparation for inflation, and greater hygiene as the individual glovesdo not have to be handled (and thus potentially contaminated by thehandler) in order to prepare the gloves for inflation.

In operation, the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-6A functions asfollows.

First, a glove stack 200 is placed in the recessed platform area 130,aligned with the generally glove-shaped region 134 and with the gloveheel region at the front opening 132 of the glove inflation chamber 105.The lid 116 is lowered to close off the top of the glove inflationchamber 105, and an air flow generating source 119 is turned on, eithermanually by the operator or automatically, such as when triggered by aswitch as the lid 116 is closed or when the presence of an approachinghand is detected by a proximity sensor. The air flow generating sourcemay be any device which creates a sustained air flow through the gloveinflation chamber 105, such as a blower with its suction side connectedto rear port 115. Because a high vacuum need not be established in theglove inflation chamber 105, the blower which creates the air flow neednot be a high-power vacuum pump, but instead needs only establish asufficient air flow to accomplish the top glove lifting action describedbelow. This permits the use of a lower power and less costly blower thanwas often needed in the prior art sealed vacuum-based glove inflationmachines.

When the air flow generating source is turned on, a relatively highvelocity air flow is established in the glove inflation chamber 105,with the air entering the chamber via constrained front opening 132 andbeing drawn out of the rear of the chamber via port 115. The relativelyhigh air flow velocities are achieved, despite the relatively low powerof the air flow generating source, as a result of the close confirmationof the walls 120, 122 around the sides of the top glove, and with theassistance of lid 116′s front panel 118, which reduces thecross-sectional area of the front opening 132 above the glove stack 200.

One of ordinary skill will recognize that in accordance with Bernoulli'slaw, as the air flow velocity over and around the top glove increases,there is a corresponding drop in the local air pressure around theexposed surfaces of the top glove. One of ordinary skill will alsorecognize that due to the heel opening of the glove facing the incomingair flow, a pressure difference is created between the interior of thetop glove and the exterior of the glove, causing the upper surface ofthe glove to begin to rise automatically, i.e., without any contactbetween the operator and the glove exterior, and thereby preserving thehygiene of the glove.

The top glove continues to inflate in the glove inflation chamber 105until it reaches its fully inflated state as shown in FIG. 6. The topglove remains fully inflated as long as the air flow generating sourceis operating to maintain the air flow through the chamber and the hingedlid 116 remains closed. As shown in FIG. 6A, the top glove is retainedin place on the top of the glove stack 200 by its connection to the nextlower glove at the glove heel contact area 220. In the FIG. 6Aillustration, the heel contact area 220 of the top glove is connected tothe next lower glove (and the remaining gloves in the glove stack 200)by a common tear-off block 230. Because the heel contact area 220 of thetopmost glove in the stack covers the heel opening of the next lowerglove in the stack, no significant amount of air may enter the nextlower glove through its wrist opening. As a result, the next lower gloveis constrained from inflating while the top glove is still attached tothe stack of gloves 200.

Once the top glove is inflated, the operator need only insert their handinto the standing-open glove, and once fully inserted, simply lift thelid 116 (thereby disrupting the air flow in the closely-conforming gloveinflation chamber 105) to allow them to lift their gloved hand out ofthe chamber. Because the strength of the retention feature between thetop glove and the next lower glove in the glove heel contact area 220 isrelatively weak (i.e., strong enough to retain the top glove in the faceof the relatively small aerodynamic forces created by the air flowthrough the chamber 105, but weak enough to be easily released as theoperator lifts their hand out of the chamber), the operator may veryquickly don the topmost glove in the stack 200 and remove their glovedhand from the glove dispensing apparatus 100 very rapidly. This is incontrast to some prior art machines which required significant set-uptime and time-consuming multiple-step operations to install the gloveinto its held-open position and to then extract the gloved hand andprepare the machine for inflation of the next glove.

Once the operator's freshly-gloved hand is removed from the glovedispensing apparatus 100, the operator may turn the air flow generatingsource off. Alternatively, the operator may lower the hinged lid 116back down over the glove inflating chamber 105. If the lid 116 islowered after turning off the air flow generating source, the apparatuswill be in a condition where when turned back on, the next lower glovein the glove stack 200 (now the new top glove) will be automaticallyinflated in response to the re-established air flow through the gloveinflating chamber 105.

Alternatively, if the air flow generating source remains turned on, whenthe lid 116 is lowered back down to again close off the top of the gloveinflation chamber 105, the next lower glove in the glove stack 200 (nowthe new top glove) will immediately begin to inflate as the air flowthrough the front opening 132 and the glove conforming-shaped portionsthe glove inflating chamber 105 is begins to be restored. Thus, by avery simple operation which in some embodiments requires at most only afew seconds, the operator may nearly instantly don one or two fresh,untouched hygienic gloves and immediately return to their work tasks.

The foregoing description and examples have been set forth merely toillustrate the invention and are not intended to be limiting. Forexample, rather than lifting the lid 116 of the glove inflating chamber105 to disrupt the air flow in the chamber, a closure valve which blocksthe flow of gas out of the outlet port 115 may be used to reduce the airflow in the chamber to the point that the air flow will not inflate thetop-most glove in the glove stack 200. Similarly, rather than providingan apparatus having a single glove inflation chamber, multiple chambers(such as a left chamber and a right chamber may be provided to permitsimultaneous donning of gloves on both hands of an operator. Sincemodifications of the describe embodiments incorporating the spirit andsubstance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, theinvention should be construed broadly to include all variations withinthe scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

1. A glove dispensing apparatus comprising: an enclosed glove inflationchamber having: a hand insertion opening at a first end of the chamber,and a gas outlet opening at a second end of the chamber; a plurality ofgloves arranged in a stack in said chamber, each glove having an openend adjacent to said hand insertion opening and a closed end adjacent tothe gas outlet opening, and each glove being secured to the stack ofgloves along a portion of one side of the open end; a gas flowgenerating source which communicates with said outlet opening fordrawing a gas flow through the hand insertion opening, the dispensingchamber and through said gas outlet opening; wherein said enclosed gloveinflation chamber is arranged such that the gas flow generated by thegas flow generating source creates a reduced pressure in the enclosedglove inflation chamber near an outer surface of a topmost glove in saidstack so as to cause the topmost glove to inflate to permit a user toinsert a hand into the inflated glove.
 2. The apparatus according toclaim 1, further comprising: a bypass valve for selectively admittinggas to said dispensing chamber, said bypass valve being arranged suchthat when the bypass valve is actuated the gas flow through the handinsertion opening is diminished so that the gas flow is insufficient toinflate the topmost glove in said stack.
 3. The apparatus according toclaim 1, further comprising: an outlet valve for selectively blockingsaid gas outlet, said outlet valve being arranged such that when theoutlet valve is actuated the gas flow through the chamber outlet openingis diminished so that the gas flow is insufficient to inflate thetopmost glove in said stack.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1,wherein said source of reduced gas pressure is a vacuum cleaner.
 5. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein each glove has heel contact areaalong said portion of said one side of said open end, and the heelcontact areas of the gloves are joined together to form said glovestack.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heel contactarea is a tab, and the tabs of the gloves in the stack are joinedtogether.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said tabs arejoined by adhesive bonding.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 6,wherein said tabs are joined by thermofusion.
 9. The apparatus accordingto claim 6, wherein each said tab is joined to the respective glove viaa weakened section which allows the glove to be easily torn from thestack.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said weakenedsection comprises a perforated tear line.
 11. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the secured portion of the one side of the open end ofeach glove extends along from 10 to 50% of the glove width.
 12. Anapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the secured portion of the oneside of the open end of each glove extends along from 15 to 35% of theglove width.
 13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the closedend of each glove is divided into a plurality of individual fingersections.
 14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the gloveinflation chamber includes left and right glove inflation chambersdisposed proximate each other in an arrangement which permitssimultaneous insertion of left and right hands into left and rightgloves in the respective left and right chambers.
 15. The apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein said bypass valve comprises a pivotablewall section of said chamber.
 16. The apparatus according to claim 1,further comprising: a proximity sensor arranged to detect a handapproaching said hand insertion opening, said proximity sensor beingoperatively connected to the gas flow generating source to turn on thegas flow generating source as the hand approaches the hand insertionopening.
 17. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said gloveinflation chamber has side walls contoured to approximately follow aplan view profile of the stack of gloves.
 18. A method for donninggloves, comprising the steps of: initiating operation of a gas flowgenerating source to create a gas flow across at least a top glove in astack of gloves in an unsealed glove inflation chamber; inserting a handinto the top glove which has inflated upon establishing the gas flowpast the top glove in the glove inflation chamber; and moving the topglove with the hand away from the stack of gloves to separate the topglove from the stack of gloves.
 19. The method for donning glovesaccording to claim 18, further comprising the steps of: after insertingthe hand into the top glove, disrupting the gas flow in the gloveinflation chamber.
 20. The method for donning gloves according to claim19, wherein the gas flow is disrupted by at least one of: operating abypass valve to disrupt flow into an opening of the glove inflationchamber, operating an outlet valve to disrupt flow out of an outletopening of the glove inflation chamber, and turning off the gas flowgenerating source by at least one of manual and automatic actuation of apower switch of the gas flow generating source.